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Tumor biomarkers provide a quantitative tool for following tumor progression and response to therapy. However, investigations of clinically useful tumor biomarkers are time-consuming, costly, and limited by patient and tumor heterogeneity. In addition, assessment of biomarkers as indicators of therapy response is confounded by the concomitant use of multiple therapeutic interventions. Herein we report our use of a clinically relevant orthotopic animal model of malignant pleural mesothelioma for investigating tumor biomarkers. Utilizing multi-modality imaging with correlative histopathology, we demonstrate the utility and accuracy of the mouse model in investigating tumor biomarkers--serum soluble mesothelin-related peptide (SMRP) and osteopontin (OPN). This model revealed percentage change in SMRP level to be an accurate biomarker of tumor progression and therapeutic response--a finding consistent with recent clinical studies. This in vivo platform demonstrates the advantages of a validated mouse model for the timely and cost-effective acceleration of human biomarker translational research.

One of the challenges in environmental health is to attribute a certain health effect to a specific environmental exposure and to establish a cause-effect relationship. Molecular epidemiology offers a new approach to addressing these challenges. Muta...

We present Insight as an integrated database and analysis platform for epilepsy self-management research as part of the national Managing Epilepsy Well Network. Insight is the only available informatics platform for accessing and analyzing integrated...

West Nile virus (WNV) replicates in a wide variety of avian species, which act as amplification hosts. In particular, WNV generates high titers and elicits severe pathology in American crows (AMCRs; Corvus brachyrhynchos), a species that has been use...

Background : There is an emerging perspective that it is not sufficient to just assess skin exposure to physical and chemical stressors in workplaces, but that it is also important to assess the condition, i.e. skin barrier function of the exposed sk...

In January 1991, epidemic cholera appeared in Peru and quickly spread to many other Latin American countries. Because reporting of cholera cases was often delayed in some areas, the scope of the epidemic was unclear. An assessment of the conduct of s...